The Inheritance Games

“You know me, Maxine. I always land on my feet.”

Avery says this to Max after she learns Libby has allowed Drake to move back into their home and leaves to sleep in her car. Her determination in this context and her positive assertion that she’ll land on her feet speak to Avery’s toughness and resilience—and foreshadows her final victory in the inheritance game.

“Ever had your life ruined by someone with the last name Hawthorne?”

Alisa poses this question to Avery when driving Avery and Libby to Hawthorne House for the first time. The loaded query foreshadows the difficulties that lie ahead for Avery, suggesting the potential that her life could be ruined by a Hawthorne.

“Dearest Avery, I’m sorry. –T. T. H.”

This is Tobias’s letter to Avery, which she receives at the reading of the will. The letter creates a sense of foreboding and mystery. For the rest of the narrative, Avery will wonder what Tobias has to be sorry for.

“Sometimes, things that are very different on their surface are actually the same at their core”

Jameson says this after Avery solves the first inheritance game puzzle, picking the fitting key to gain entry to Hawthorne House. He sees that, although Avery doesn’t look like she fits into the Hawthornes’ world, she shares their talent for solving puzzles. His words speak to the narrative’s central argument regarding the damaging nature of manmade class differences.

“He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you.”

Jameson says this to Avery, highlighting her character’s significance. This statement speaks to his belief that Avery is “special,” a puzzle to be solved.

“Jameson, Better the devil you know than the one you don’t—or is it? Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All that glitters is gold. Nothing is certain but death and taxes. There but for the grace of God go I. Don’t judge. – Tobias Tattersall Hawthorne”

This is Tobias’s letter to Jameson, which he receives at the reading of the will. It’s the first major clue of the inheritance game, kicking off the action and leading Jameson and Avery to the library to find a book without a matching cover. The use of adages speaks to the cryptic nature of the game as a whole.

“Tobias Hawthorne had apparently been a champion at keeping secrets—like my mother.”

Avery thinks this to herself after learning that Tobias hadn’t revealed his illness to his family. The quote hints at the risks of secrecy, a recurring theme. Avery has already revealed that her mother’s secrecy landed her in the hospital, creating an ominous tone by lumping Tobias in with her mother.

“They were magic. And when you were in their orbit, you felt like magic, too.”

An unnamed girl at Heights Country Day School says this about the Hawthornes. It’s a third-party, objective summation of the power the Hawthorne grandsons have. It’s not just the narrator, Avery, who feels their magnetic power—the attraction is universal.

“Think what you want about me. But the last girl at this school who got tangled up with the Hawthorne brothers? The last girl who spent hour after hour in that house? She died.”

Thea drops this bombshell revelation about Emily on Avery’s first day at Heights Country Day School. In doing so, she opens up the narrative subplot of Emily’s death. She also adds to the distrust Avery already has of the Hawthorne brothers.

“Everything is something in Hawthorne House.”

Jameson says this when he and Avery start searching for the book without a matching cover in the Hawthorne House library. His words speak to the nature of the inheritance game as a whole—you have to look beyond the surface and find deeper meaning in every clue.

“I was raised to play, same as you.”

Grayson says this to Jameson. His words speak to the charmed upbringing the Hawthorne boys had, raised by the grandfather to play to win. Avery was also raised to play—but in her case, she was raised to survive.

“You might think you’re playing the game, darlin’, but that’s not how Jamie sees it. We aren’t normal. This place isn’t normal, and you’re not a player, kid. You’re the glass ballerina—or the knife.”

Nash says this to Avery, suggesting that she’s just a clue in Tobias’s inheritance game, not actually significant in the end. The words haunt Avery throughout the book, and she repeats them in her mind often. Although meant as a warning, Nash’s words demean and objectify Avery, taking away her personal agency and sense of power.

“Skye wasn’t the one who’d forged them, pushed them, set them to challenges, expected the impossible. She wasn’t the one who’d made them magic.”

Avery reaches this conclusion as she learns more about the Hawthorne boys’ upbringing. She recognizes that Tobias is the puppet master who made them the “magic” beings they are.

“I watched Emily Laughlin die.”

Jameson says this to Avery without any further immediate explanation. The words deepen the mystery surrounding Emily’s death, a subplot-mystery that Avery tries to solve—alongside other mysteries like who is trying to kill Avery and why Tobias chose her as his beneficiary.

“I wasn’t okay with any of this. Everyone had been so sure that I wasn’t going to get ax-murdered that I’d let my guard down. I’d pushed back the thought that people had killed over far less than what I’d inherited. I’d let every single one of the Hawthorne brothers past my defenses.”

Avery thinks this after she’s shot at. It’s one of her character’s most vulnerable moments, showing a crack in her normally stoic veneer. Shortly after, she initiates a kiss with Jameson.

“The next time someone tries to shoot you, I damn well want to know.”

Libby says this to Avery after finding out about the shooting via Skye—she’s angry that Avery kept it a secret. In the same discussion, Avery reveals the knows Libby’s secret—that Drake is still texting her. The temporary distrust this secret-keeping creates between the girls speaks to the book’s argument that secrets are damaging.

“Avery realizes: The logical thing to do was stop playing. Step back. But I wanted answers, and some part of me—the part that had grown up with a mom who’d turned everything into a challenge, the part who’d played my first game of chess when I was six years old—wanted to win.”

Avery has this thought when she realizes her life is in danger because of the inheritance game. These words attest to a key similarity she has with the Hawthorne brothers, a desire to play the game and win. Although she may not have their upbringing, Avery is more like the Hawthornes than she realizes.

“WELCOME TO HAWTHORNE HOUSE, AVERY KYLIE GRAMBS!”

This message appears on the pinball machine in Hawthorne House when Avery turns it on. She’s seen it before, when she used the house’s bowling alley (127). The fact that Tobias programmed these machines to greet her before his death speaks to his detail-oriented nature. The preprogrammed greetings also have the eerie effect of making Tobias’s ghost seem present, active, and engaged, speaking to the power of such absentee characters.

“I am a human Rube Goldberg machine. I do simple things in complicated ways.”

Xander says this to Avery, repeating it twice in the same conversation. Throughout the narrative, Xander has seemed like the straightforward, laid-back Hawthorne—the baby. However, his character proves more complex when it’s revealed that Tobias enlisted his help to keep his brothers involved in the inheritance game. This quote reflects that hidden complexity.

“There’s nothing more Hawthorne than winning.”

Grayson says this to Avery when talking about his competition with Jameson over Emily. The words resonate with Avery, who has a deep drive and desire to win the inheritance game, aligning her with the Hawthornes’ characters.

“They’d known the old man. I hadn’t. What they were saying—it made sense to them. In their eyes, this hadn’t been a whim. It had been a very risky gamble. I had been a very risky gamble. Tobias Hawthorne had bet that my presence in the House would shake things up, that old secrets would be laid bare, that somehow, someway, one last puzzle would change everything.”

In this moment, Avery is feeling used and unimportant. It seems that the boys’ theories that she was just a puzzle piece in Tobias’s final riddle was accurate. Soon after, Avery will discover she’s more than a puzzle piece, however, when she realizes that she knows Toby—as Harry.

“I have a secret, I could hear my mom saying. About the day you were born.”

Avery frequently thinks of these words from her mother (e.g., 275). However, she never reveals what the secret is. Given that Avery’s mother’s secrets landed her in the hospital, this quote points to the risky nature of secrecy. Since the secret about Avery’s birthday is never revealed, this quote also sets up a mystery for the book’s sequel.

“It can’t happen, Avery. I’ve seen the way Jameson looks at you.”

Grayson says this to Avery when it seems like she might kiss him. He’s drawing a line in the sand, determined not to let a girl come between him and his brother. Grayson doesn’t want to repeat the Emily mistake.